Monday, February 28, 2011

My parents ventured down from the UP last weekend for Detroit Autorama. For those who don't know, Autorama is a series of large car shows held across the country. Since we wanted a bit of a break from our various projects and work, Katie and I went along for the show.

There were a number of fairly classic restorations, and quite a few more that took a little bit of artistic license. One of those is owned by a friend of my dad's, Bob Chesney. His car, Big Bad Orange is a 1968 Plymouth Road Runner, and is built to drag. It's got a beautiful interior, and it won both Best in Class and Best Engine. How exactly they determine Best Engine, I don't know.

Sunday, February 27, 2011

After a great deal of trial and error with both Illustrator making the header and with html editing the template code (I'm not formally trained in either) I've got a new look. I'm still not 100% sold on the colors, but it exists. It's not the best thing around, but I'm hardly an expert in blog template design. Please give input and if you've got experience with Blogger and template design and are willing to offer advice or lend your services, please let me know.

Yesterday, I visited Detroit Autorama and got a chance to take pictures of some amazing cars. I was particularly fond of the rat rods, but that's just my style. I'll hopefully be sharing some of the pictures with you tomorrow.

Thursday, February 24, 2011

I've run this blog on and off in several different incarnations for a number of years now. I've gone through everything from general ramblings to an attempt to show how much of a "modern renaissance man" that I am. Go ahead and read the old posts. I'll leave them up. Some of them were ok, but it was generally a mediocre idea.

Now, however, I think I've come across a topic that I'll be able to keep up for the long run, A Yooper Steampunk Abroad.There are countless places that people like to say are not like anyplace else on Earth. Most of the time, they're not as accurate as they think they are. But anybody who's ever spent time in Michigan's Upper Peninsula can tell you that it is one of the few places for which this statement holds true. Of course, I'm kind of biased. I grew up there. While there was no hunting or fishing in my youth and I've only driven a snowmobile once, I still consider myself a true Yooper. If you don't, that's ok with me. The UP is such a unique place, that living anyplace else is like living in a foreign country.

Several years ago now, my fiance Katie and I came across this thing called steampunk. We fell in love. It's become such a part of our lives that when we get married in June, it will be a steampunk themed wedding. Our apartment is slowly becoming a steampunk living quarters. It won't be long now before the steampunk shelf has just as many books as our Vonnegut shelf or our Pratchett shelf.

These two things kind of define me. Of course, there's a huge list of other things, and they'll creep in too, but these are amongst the easiest to share about continually. Over the next few weeks, there will be a lot of visual changes happening around here. If you follow me on Twitter or are my friend on Facebook, you may have seen part of it already. I've created what I believe to be the most accurate vector image of the UP in existence. If you haven't seen it yet, you will soon. Additionally, you'll also see some detailed elements of my and Katie's wedding. You'll hear about my experience with the Detroit steampunk scene and Detroit in general. I'll share my favorite sources for materials, my favorite places, my favorite people, and my favorite events. Oh, and the beer. You'll hear a lot about beer too.